


When in Rome…

by torino10154



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Domestic, Humor, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-09
Updated: 2012-08-09
Packaged: 2017-11-11 19:09:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/481886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torino10154/pseuds/torino10154





	When in Rome…

**Title:** When in Rome…  
 **Pairing:** Severus/Harry  
 **Rating:** PG-13  
 **Word Count:** ~1590  
 **Warnings:** Teen angst, frazzled parental units, and a bit of love in spite of it all.  
 **Summary:** Tired of being cooped up at home, Harry takes the children to Rome. Severus isn't sure which is worse.  
 **A/N:** Thanks to [](http://accioslash.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**accioslash**](http://accioslash.dreamwidth.org/) for the quickie beta. Any remaining mistakes are entirely my own. Dedicated to all the parents out there who are enjoying having their children home for the summer ~~and counting the days until school starts again~~. :D 

"Whatever made you think a trip to the Continent in mid-summer was a good idea?" Severus said, his cooling charms barely holding in the oppressive heat.

Harry glared at him and took a sip from his Wizard's EverCoolTM water bottle. "I wasn't about to stay cooped up in the house with the three of them any longer."

They both looked over at Harry's children—as Severus still referred to them, even though he and Harry had been together for nearly five years—who were sitting next to the Trevi Fountain, dipping their hands into the water. Al pulled off his shoes and socks, then started to stick his feet in, though Severus had warned him not to.

A loud voice boomed from ten feet away. " _Non mettere i piedi nella fontana_!"

Harry rushed over and handed them each a coin, likely to distract them before they ended up having to bail them out of an Italian jail for desecrating a national treasure. "Make a wish and throw this over your shoulder."

"Can I wish for a boy to like me?" Lily asked and her brothers groaned, Severus strongly reminded why he didn't miss being anyone's Head of House.

"Lily, love," Harry said gripping her shoulders. "You don't need to worry about boys, you're only twelve."

James got a gleam in his eye before he tossed his coin. Severus did not like the look of it. Not at all.

"What did you wish for?" he asked suspiciously.

James glared as only a sixteen-year-old could. "If I tell you, it won't come true."

"I doubt it will come true regardless," Severus murmured under his breath and Harry nudged him in the back.

"What about you, Al?" Harry asked. "Are you going to make a wish?"

"Yep. One I know will come true." Al grinned, closed his eyes, and threw the silver coloured coin over his head. It plopped as it hit the water.

"So, what was your wish, _Merlin_?" James said.

"James," Harry said, warning in his voice.

"I wished for gelato."

"Ooo, can we have another?" Lily said. "The coconut was so good. Or maybe chocolate. I'd love to try the nut one Al had—"

"Noch-e-ola?" James asked.

"No-cho-la." Al stuck his tongue out and Severus thought James might be itching to hex it off.

Not without good reason.

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose and counted backward from one hundred. In Latin.

"Supper first, then gelato," Harry pronounced with what was surely false gaiety.

James pulled a small object from his pocket and tapped it with his wand. Severus would likely never take to the magical/Muggle technological hybrids that were all the rage these days. Surely Mariana Starke's guidebook was sufficient. What could have changed in Rome in two hundred years?

"Says there is a place down the street. Oyster something."

Lily leaned over and looked. "Osteria Allegro Pachino," she said brightly.

"I hate you," James muttered.

They wandered away from the fountain and headed the wrong way down the street for a half a block before doubling back. The restaurant had outdoor seating but Severus looked at the hot and sweaty Potters and asked that they be seated indoors.

"Good idea," Harry said, allowing his children to walk inside first and then giving Severus's arse a pat.

"Potter," Severus growled and Harry just smiled with mock innocence as he sat down at their table.

"They have pizza!" Lily announced excitedly.

"And pasta, and bread," James said from behind his menu. "It's an Italian restaurant."

"It's called _pane_."

"Shut it, Al."

"We'll have two glasses of the house red," Harry said to the waitress with some exasperation.

"A full bottle," Severus amended and Harry nodded.

"Maybe two."

After a relatively uneventful supper, all things considered, the Potters plus one walked back out into the warm summer evening. They wandered up the road and then, once they reached the Spanish Steps, sat down to listen to a group of musicians playing, Euros occasionally dropping into the open guitar case.

"See? This isn't so bad," Harry said, then pressed his thigh to Severus's.

"That's just the wine talking."

"It was very good wine." Harry reached up and ran his fingers through the hair at Severus's nape. "I'm much more relaxed now." He then pressed a kiss to Severus's cheek.

"Potter," Severus said, scowling. "We're in public."

"I'm not giving you a handjob or anything," Harry said a bit too loudly.

"Christ, Dad," James said and moved two steps further away from them.

"I'm starving!" Lily announced suddenly, though how she could be at all hungry Severus couldn't begin to fathom. She pointed toward a long queue coming out of a shop on the street in front of them and going around the corner. "They are supposed to have the best gelato in Rome."

"I don't think you can get bad gelato in Italy," Al said, standing and stretching.

Severus watched Harry's children begin walking down the steps and frowned when he realised how much taller James was compared to last year. Though, it was Lily who was having a growth spurt, having grown three inches while she was away at school this past year, nearly matching Al in height.

Why did he even know these things and when had they become so important to him?

"Come on," Harry said grinning. "Gelato's not going to eat itself."

"If we stay in Rome much longer, I'll gain a stone," Severus replied grumpily as they followed James, Al, and Lily.

"We'll just have to think of a way to burn off those calories later." Harry took Severus's hand and gave it a squeeze, but letting go before he could complain.

"Perhaps when the children go back to Hogwarts?" Severus suggested, counting the days in his mind.

"We're staying at the Hotel d'Inghilterra." Harry looked over his shoulder and waggled his eyebrows. "We have a suite."

"Are you propositioning me, Mr Potter?"

"Is it working?" Harry replied cheekily.

Feeling the coil of desire just beginning to smolder, Severus said, "Indeed."

"Well then, as soon as the children have had their pudding, we'll go back to the hotel and have ours."

"How far are we from the hotel?" Severus murmured in Harry's ear as they sat down on a bench outside the gelateria to wait.

"Not far." Harry pressed up against his side and the scent of him, while always arousing, was also familiar. Comforting.

"Perhaps this trip wasn't such a bad idea after all," Severus said and pressed a soft kiss to Harry's head.

Lily, James, and Al came out of the shop, each holding a large cone piled high with gelato.

"What flavours did you get, Lily?" Harry asked.

"They had three kinds of chocolate—"

"Oh, brother," Al said, rolling his eyes.

"—and I didn't know what to choose so I got all three!"

"Marvelous," Severus said, his erotic evening crumbling as he imagined the twelve year old girl who wouldn't be sleeping on the other side of the wall.

"What about you, James?" Harry said, peering at James's cone.

"Rum raisin, English soup, and whisky."

"All the alcoholic choices, I see." Harry raised an eyebrow and James grinned then licked a wide swath around the cone.

"English soup?" Severus asked. "Ah, zuppa inglese? Tastes something like trifle?"

"Not much, actually." James shrugged but kept eating.

"And you, Al?" Severus asked. "What did you get?"

Al smiled and held out his cone for all to see. "Chocolate and vanilla."

"Daring, our Al," Harry said and ruffled Al's hair.

"What happened to saying everything in Italian?" Severus asked, noticing neither Lily nor Al had pronounced their flavours in the local language.

Lily blushed and Al elbowed her in the ribs.

"Translation Charm wore off, did it?" Harry asked knowingly.

"And you didn't tell me, you berks!" James knocked Al upside the head.

"Enough," Severus said and they fell silent. It was good to see he still could get their undivided attention on occasion. "You will finish your gelato and then we will go to the hotel where you will wash up and go directly to sleep. Understand?"

Three heads nodded in agreement and proceeded to sit down and eat, with only the occasional scowl in Severus's direction.

"What do you want to see tomorrow?" Harry asked once they'd finished and began walking toward the hotel.

"The Colosseum," James said. "Definitely."

"The Pantheon sounds interesting," Lily added. "There's also a church nearby with the same name as Headmistress McGonagall."

"McGonagall's an awfully odd name for an Italian church," James said.

"It's _Minerva_ ," Lily replied, sticking out her tongue.

"I want to see the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum." Al turned toward Severus and they both smirked.

"Excellent choice," Severus said.

"You two are going to be impossible, I can tell," Harry said with a laugh.

"Here we are," Severus said when they arrived at the entrance to the hotel. Noting the number of stars beside the door, he raised his eyebrow at Harry.

"You need to be spoiled once and a while," Harry threw over his shoulder and then herded his children toward the check-in desk. Severus hid his amusement when he saw the look on the concierge's face. The poor man had no idea who had just walked into his hotel.

 _I do though_ , he thought to himself and walked up behind Harry, placing a hand at the small of his back.

Harry turned for a moment, flashing Severus a blinding smile, before turning back to the concierge to finish checking them in.


End file.
